


Skaði's Pond

by PlotDotOh (TheCheerfulPornographer), radial_symmetry



Category: Christian Myth & History, Norse Mythology -- Fandom
Genre: Comment Fic, Gen, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-08
Updated: 2012-01-08
Packaged: 2017-10-29 05:50:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/316483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCheerfulPornographer/pseuds/PlotDotOh, https://archiveofourown.org/users/radial_symmetry/pseuds/radial_symmetry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Listen, Maja Elricsen, and I will tell you a tale, for this is a thing that you will need to understand.</p><p>Every year, the goddess takes just one.  Just one life: sometimes an animal, sometimes a child.  Sometimes a broken-legged deer is chased by wolves into the depths of the lake, and drowns.  Sometimes the wolf comes, dying, and makes its final home in a place where it senses that its death will do some good.  Sometimes the ice breaks under a child, just once every couple of years, and it falls through and cannot be found.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Skaði's Pond

**Author's Note:**

> This was written to a photo prompt at io9. Here is the prompt image:

Listen, Maja Elricsen, and I will tell you a tale, for this is a thing that you will need to understand.

Every year, the goddess takes just one. Just one life: sometimes an animal, sometimes a child. Sometimes a broken-legged deer is chased by wolves into the depths of the lake, and drowns. Sometimes the wolf comes, dying, and makes its final home in a place where it senses that its death will do some good. Sometimes the ice breaks under a child, just once every couple of years, and it falls through and cannot be found.

\---

When Ragnarök came, it did not happen as it had been foretold. The sun and moon remained in the sky, bright and proud; the great serpent Jörmungandr did not leave the deepest seas. The earth did not burn, and the crops did not fail. When the Christ-followers came, there were many great battles and heroic deeds, but in the end, only the gods of old were cast away.

Many of the Aesir fell into the sea, and felt their bodies dissolve among the waves. Others fell into fire and their ashes were scattered upon the face of the earth, and any portion of land that they touched was blessed forever after with bountiful crops and plentiful game. Beautiful Freyja fell upward, carried in her chariot of cats, and her beauty burned so brightly that she turned into a star. Mighty Odin, the All-Father, dissolved into the wind, and was carried everywhere. But the goddess Skaði, the Frost Giant, when She was cast down by the Christian priests, begged them to let Her stay in own Her beloved land.

One of the men, a priest named Olaf, heard Her pleas and took mercy. He ordered the warriors under his command to dig a mighty pit in the earth, as deep as a house and as long as fifty men. Then he pushed Skaði down into the pit with merciless hands, and chanted the Kyrie over Her corpse as his men covered Her body with dirt.

Over long centuries, Skaði's skin melted away, running off with the snow every year in the spring. Her hair turned into strands of ice, forming rivers and small streams that blessed the land. Her muscle began to dissolve, and it fertilized the soil; around the pit where She was buried, a small village grew up, taking advantage of the bounty given by Her corpse.

These days, the goddess is much diminished, and children skate and play atop her corpse. There is little left of Skaði aside from Her bones; all else is worn away, forgotten. Nobody speaks Skaði's name. But sometimes the bones of a goddess are enough, if She is left in the land that was Her home.

\---

Every year, the goddess takes just one. This year, She is hungry, and weaker than before; when the girl called Maja Elricsen comes skating, She will be glad. For little Maja is pure of heart and young, full of vital energy; her sacrifice will keep the tired, old goddess going for another year. Skaði cannot give up now, cannot allow Herself to dissolve completely and disappear into the earth like so many other gods, gone and forgotten. No, Skaði will hang on.

Because Ragnarök is not the only end of time. She knows this in Her bones, which are all that She has left.

Every religion has its own Apocalypse, and She senses that the world is once again poised on the brink of change. When the Christ-followers weaken and their Revelation comes, Skaði will be waiting.

If only She can keep Her strength; if only She can hang on for one more year, Skaði will be waiting, ready to rise again. The girl, soon to be frozen, does not know that she is blessed — that her death hastens the day when the Giants return to Earth.

Just one more sacrifice, Maja, and another after that.

\---

Now do you understand, my daughter? Do you see why I always forbade you to go skating on Skaði's Pond?

But now that you are sixteen, you are old enough to choose, and it is time to decide where your loyalties lie: with God in Heaven, or with She who waits beneath the earth. Your choice affects bigger things than your own life; so see that you choose wisely, and see that you choose well.

And if you choose to live, tell your daughter this same tale — and never, ever let her go skating on Skaði's Pond.


End file.
